Abay in East Liberty

Took the boys to Abay, the Ethiopian restaurant in the resurgent East Liberty corridor of Highland/Penn/Baum/Center. The wife and I had gone long ago, just after the place opened, and thought it was just okay (although at that point, when we knew so little about Pittsburgh restaurants we once took family to a TGI Friday's, anything interesting or non-french-fry-based was okay by us). Worse, for Ethiopian food, it was actually bland. We had been spoiled by our former proximity to the great restaurants in L.A.'s Ethiopian district on Fairfax and Olympic and D.C.'s Adams Morgan. Tonight, though, Abay was just great. The beef was spicy, the injera was good, the lentils and veggies were excellent. I still wish they had a liquor license, but the scarcity of those things is just another thing I don't get about Pennsylvania. And now, next to the old tuxedo shop on Highland and Baum (which was evicted for delinquent rent, according to the constable's note on the door), there's a coffee place that was filled with hipsters at 7:30 on a Friday. In East Liberty! A good development for an area that needs some life in the evenings.